New rail transit route thru India gets govt nod

Connectivity with Nepal, Bhutan

Bangladesh has decided to open Chilahati-Haldibari rail link by December 2012 for its easier connectivity with Bhutan and Nepal through India, officials say.

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India’s Hashimara railway station, bordering Bhutan, is only 182 kilometres away from Bangladesh’s Chilahati. Bangladesh Railway officials say, one can reach Hashimara in just three hours through Chilahati-Haldibari route.

Again, trains can reach Jogobani, an Indian station bordering Nepal, through New Jalpaiguri and Katihar junctions of India. Jogobani is only 40 kilometres away from Haldibari and 52 kilometres from Chilahati.

Chilahati-Haldibari rail route will be fifth agreed rail transit points between Bangladesh and India.

The two countries have four other rail transit points such as Rahanpur (Chapainawabganj)-Singhabad, Birol (Dinajpur)-Radhikapur, Darsana (Kushtia)-Gede and Kulaura (Moulvibazar)-Mahishashan (India).

Replying to a query from New Delhi, Bangladesh Railway already informed the Indian High Commission in Dhaka about the revival of the old rail link, which was operational till 1965.

The transit route connecting India and Bangladesh (East Pakistan) was abandoned following the Indo-Pak war in 1965.

“We have already informed the Indian government that we will be in a position to open the Chilahati-Haldibari point,” Mozammel Haque, the chief planning officer of Bangladesh Railway, told daily sun on Tuesday.

Chandrima Roy, the railway adviser to the Indian High Commission in Dhaka, on October 23 sent a letter to the Bangladesh Railway and the secretary of the Railway Division asking for a timeframe to open the Chilahati-Haldibari transit point.

She also requested to set a timetable for launching the Kualaura-Mahishashan rail transit point.

“Hopefully we will be able to reopen the Kualaura-Mahishashan route by June 2013,” Haque said, adding that the decision had been taken by the Indian government.

The communications ministry sources say, Bangladesh Railway will have to construct 7.5 kilometres of new rail tracks from Chilahati to reach the border while the Indian authorities have to set up 4.5 kilometres of tracks from its border to Haldibari station.

Bangladesh and India can go for opening of the rail transit routes in different parts as per the joint declaration adopted during Sheikh Hasina’s trip to Delhi in January 2010.

The two countries had agreed in the joint declaration for greater connectivity involving Bangladesh, India, Bhutan and Nepal. The joint declaration did not mention Chilahati-Haldibari point as transit route. But officials of both the countries have found this route more suitable for Bangladesh’s easy connectivity with Bhutan and Nepal.

Communications ministry sources say, Bangladesh Railway has drafted a project for reviving the Chilahati-Haldibari rail route for easy regional connectivity among the members of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc).